Next roundtable within 2 months: Azad

Two days after he recommended a third roundtable conference on Kashmir to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

Two days after he recommended a third roundtable conference on Kashmir to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said the new meeting will be organised within a month and a half. The announcement comes close on the heels of the Centre appointing three committees to discuss PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s demand for demilitarisation of Kashmir, which put the Jammu and Kashmir coalition government under tremendous pressure.

In a speech at Raithan Budgam in central Kashmir, Azad said the situation in Kashmir was improving progressively and efforts were on to resolve problems through the mechanism of roundtables where all political parties and the representative groups got to air their views and arrive at a consensus.

Significantly, in a politically loaded announcement, which is unlikely to go down well with coalition partner PDP, Azad also revealed that the Congress would forge an alliance with CPI(M) and the People’s Democratic Front in the Assembly elections next year. “The three have decided to come together and fight the next elections on the same platform. I urge you (people) to strengthen our hands,” Azad said, while avoiding any mention of PDP.

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The statement came as a fresh indication of the festering discord between the Congress and PDP, despite the Centre giving in to Sayeed’s demand to set up panels to discuss troop withdrawal from Kashmir.

While Azad rejected the demilitarisation as a practicable option in Kashmir under the present circumstances, today he virtually ruled out a future alliance with PDP. This created a scenario for fresh political alignments in the state, with National Conference being talked about as a future Congress coalition partner.

Azad also spoke about the ongoing Indo-Pak dialogue which he acknowledged had been primarily responsible for putting Jammu and Kashmir on the road to normalcy. However, he said the roundtable conferences were a better mechanism to find a solution to the problems in the state. “In the first and second roundtable conferences, every shade of Kashmiri opinion got a chance to express itself. Now the third roundtable will take the process forward,” Azad said. “The resolution of problems requires a joint effort, respecting aspirations of people of all the three regions in a coordinated manner.”

India, Pak to continue Samjhauta, Thar Express

ISLAMABAD: Undaunted by the February bomb attack on Samjhauta Express, India and Pakistan today extended till 2010 a bilateral agreement to run passenger train and freight services between the two countries. A six-member Indian railway delegation headed by Advisor Traffic, Suhbas Ranjan Thakur, signed an agreement with his Pakistani counterpart extending the bilateral pact on running the Samjhauta Express between Lahore and New Delhi and Thar Express between Khokhrapar and Munabao for the next three years. PTI